I was driven to understand my past. For we are not ready-made out of somebody’s rib. We are composites of many different legacies, put together from leftovers in an evolutionary process that has been going on for billions of years. Even the endorphins that made my labor pains tolerable came from molecules that humans still share with earthworms.

— Sarah Blaffer Hrdy

Women's work

Arachne & Athena

Who are we?

Magistrate: “So how will you women be able to put a stop to such a complicated international mess, and sort it all out?” Lysistrata: “Very easily.” Magistrate: “How? Show me.”

Lysistrata: (taking the sewing blanket from the Magistrate and using its contents to illustrate) “It’s rather like a ball of yarn when it gets tangled up. We hold it this way, and carefully wind out the strands on our spindles, now this way, now that way. That’s how we’ll wind up this war, if we’re allowed: unsnarling it by sending embassies, now this way, now that way.” 

— Aristophanes

To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug. 